What does low power charger mean on Chromebook?
Every time you plug in your charger on your Chromebook, a notification talking about low power charger appears, here is what it means.
It means that there is an issue with the connected charger, it does not mean the issue is on the charger itself but it can be a software-related issue, an issue on the charger, or a hardware issue on your Chromebook. Because of this low-power charger issue, the battery will take more time than usual to charge. Depending on how big the issue is, the battery might take a day to charge.
I had the problem myself on my Chromebook so I’ve made some research to understand the notification and to be able to fix it.
What does low power charger mean?
So as I told you before, the low power charger notification means that there is an issue with the charging of your Chromebook. Because of an issue, the charging is slower than it should be. If the issue is not that big, you might not see any difference but if it is a big issue, the charging could be very slow.
A charger is delivering the electricity needed to charge your Chromebook with the proper voltage and current. The Chromebook is expecting specific voltage and current values, and the low power charger issue means that the voltage and current values do not match the expected ones.
We could think that it must be an issue with the charger itself, but today the connection between the charger and the Chromebook is smart, which means that the voltage and current delivered by the charger might change depending on the information received from the Chromebook. Anyway, the details are complicated but just keep in mind that the issue can also be coming from your Chromebook.
How to turn off the low power charger notification on your Chromebook?
If you think that there is no issue despite the notification or that the issue is low enough to not care about it, you might want to disable the notification.
Unfortunately, it is not yet possible to disable the low power charger notification on your Chromebook. However, there is a feature request to add the possibility to disable this notification or configure the values threshold to trigger the notification, you can find the feature request here.
How to fix low power charger on Chromebook?
Now that you understand the issue correctly, I will show you several options that can fix it. The options are sorted from the easier one to the harder or most annoying one.
Cleaning the charger port
The first thing to do is to clean the charger and your Chromebook. With time, and especially if you bring your Chromebook to dirty places, some dirt and dust can prevent the connection to work great, and therefore reduce the voltage and current delivered by your charger.
In this case, you want to clean both sides of the charging connection, you want to clean the charger cable, but also the charging port on your Chromebook. To clean everything, you can blow on the charger and the port, or use cotton around something thin, but the best is to use compressed air. This kind of compressed air will do perfectly fine, just put the nozzle close to your port and press the can in short blasts, keeping the can in an upright position.
Hard reset your Chromebook
When you close your Chromebook, you are not shutting it down completely. It’s almost the same as with phones and tablets, closing your Chromebook will just put it in standby mode and will turn off the display and keyboard. But there is still a way to completely shut down your Chromebook.
The process to completely shut down your Chromebook is called a hard reset, to do this you need to turn off your Chromebook and press simultaneously Refresh and Power keys. Press them until you see your Chromebook restarting up.
By doing a hard reset, your Chromebook will restart all the hardware and software components including the components linked to the charging. Doing a hard reset is not a big deal and can fix the low power charger issue on your Chromebook, you should give it a try.
Factory reset your Chromebook
Doing a hard reset will not reset all the default configurations of the components of your Chromebook. To reset everything you need to do a factory reset, also named a Powerwash, it will erase all user data including all the files in the Download folder so make sure to back up your files in your Google Drive or an external drive such as a USB key.
The steps to factory reset your Chromebook
- Sign out of your Chromebook
- Press and hold simultaneously the keys Ctrl + Alt + Shift + r
- Select Restart
- A pop-up will appear, select “Powerwash” and then “Continue”.
- Once it’s done, you will have to log in to your Google Account and follow the setup process as if it was the first time you use it.
Try another charger with your Chromebook
If all the steps described above are not fixing the low power charger issue, the issue might come from the charger itself. In this case, you will need to buy a new one. If someone you know might have the same charger, you should give it a try first.
Try to buy the original charger from the constructor, as you could still see the low power charger issue with a different charger.
Your Chromebook needs to be repaired
Finally, the issue could come from the charging plug on your Chromebook. Trying to repair it by yourself might be hard and could cause more trouble than needed, I would suggest looking for a repair store even if your Chromebook is not under warranty anymore.
A faulty charging plug can be the cause of the issue low power charger as it can reduce the voltage and current of your charger.
Conclusion
The low power charger notification can be very annoying but there is, unfortunately, no way to disable the notification yet, however, a feature request exists. It is hard to tell where does the issue come from, but there are several things to try to fix the issue. Be sure to try each of them correctly and you should be able to fix the low power charger issue
Author
Maxime Levesque is a technical engineer with more than 5 years of professional experience. He is an expert in computer and phones, mostly on Apple products. Maxime is also the founder of TechBrowser.
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